


Laura’s Birthday

by SpacePenguin11



Category: The Brittas Empire
Genre: F/M, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 15:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpacePenguin11/pseuds/SpacePenguin11
Summary: Laura’s having the day from hell, and her manager doesn’t seem to be helping matters. That is until she discovers a very different side to him.





	Laura’s Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> There’s a bit of bad language, but mainly just a whole lot of USTing going on.
> 
> Het if you squint :p

It was going to be a bad day. Laura knew this the minute she had woken up late.

She’d had three missed calls from her boss but really couldn’t face speaking to him. Her manager seemed to have energy to burn and never more so than in the mornings. She was feeling a little fragile this morning for some reason and she knew she wouldn’t be able to tolerate an energetic telephone lecture, so she had called the main reception number instead and explained to Carole that she had overslept and would be in as soon as she could be. 

‘Carole will relay the message onto him’, she thought.

She didn’t even get as much as a gulp of her morning coffee, as she rather successfully managed to spill the majority of it down her work shirt, narrowly avoiding scalding herself in the process.

Swearing, she ran upstairs to her bedroom to get a fresh one. She found one, but it needed ironing. She debated for a moment or two whether to iron it and turn up even later for work, or risk going in with it creased and incur the ‘Staff members must always look their best’ speech from her manager.  
She went with the latter option, hoping that by the time she got to work, some of the creases would have worked themselves out.

Already being late, she had to forego any more coffee and only managed a couple of bites of toast on her way out the door.

‘Please let Mr Brittas be in one of his less irritating moods today,’ she thought as she got in the car.

He had only been manager of the centre for a couple of months, but had already rubbed most of the staff up the wrong way.

Her car battery was in dire need of replacement, and of course it chose this morning to conk out entirely; she cried out in frustration and thumped her hands on the steering wheel.

Well that was that then, she’d have to take the bus. Which was of course running ten minutes behind schedule, and was so jam packed that she had to stand all the way.

She arrived at Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre exactly two and a half hours late for work.

‘Some birthday this is turning out to be,’ she thought.  
Carole looked up from the magazine she was reading as Laura walked in.

“Good morning Laura,” she said with a soft smile.

Laura returned the smile, it seemed the receptionist was in one of her calmer moods today.  
She had always been very fond of Carole, true she was a bit neurotic and could be very unpredictable at certain times of the month, but Laura believed that she always had good intentions. It was so nice to see a kind face after the pig of a morning she’d had.

“Is Brittas cross with me?” she asked

“Not especially so Laura, but then he was a little preoccupied when I told him you were going to be late.”

“Preoccupied?”

“Yes, a child was sick in the pool this morning and he’s had to empty it out.”

“Couldn’t Colin do it?”

“He can’t get off the toilet. Something about a prawn curry...I wasn’t really listening.”

 

Laura sighed.  
“I should probably go and give him a hand. You never know, it might just earn me some brownie points for being late!” She was feeling awake enough now to be able to tolerate her boss.  
On her way to the swimming pool a thought occurred to her.

‘Carole didn’t wish me happy birthday.’

By the time she got there, everything had been done, and her manager was just in the process of putting the cleaning equipment back in the cupboard and refilling the pool.  
Laura noticed with some amusement that his hair was completely messed up, curls falling all over the place. His blazer had been hung over a chair and his shirt sleeves had ridden up high on his upper arms.

She really had to fight against the feeling that arose in her mind.

‘He looks nice.’

“Ah there you are Laura!” he said noticing her.

“I’m sorry I’m late Mr Brittas but...”

“Is Colin off that toilet yet?” he asked, interrupting her.

“Um no I don’t think so,” she said,

“You see my alarm clock didn’t...”

“I will never understand some people Laura,” he said, interrupting her again.

“I mean what parent lets their child go swimming straight after breakfast!? I think I’m going to have to put a sign up.”

“I don’t think that’s really necessary is it Mr Brittas?”

“It most certainly is necessary Laura, I´ve never seen so much sick come out of a child before. It completely clogged up one of the filters, I had to pick most of it out by hand!”  
Keen to change the subject Laura said

“Well, I’d better go and get myself ready for my yoga class.”

“Oh, just a moment Laura?”

“Yes,” she said, turning back round.

“I’ll need to see you in my office after your class, so we can fill the late form out.”

She looked at her watch.  
“But that will be my lunch break!”

“Yes Laura I am aware that is rather unfortunate but rules are rules, and so we do need to get the form filled out as soon as possible.”

“Well, when will I get my break then?” she asked, trying to hide the desperate whine in her voice.

She’d had hardly any breakfast, and had only managed a couple of sips of coffee. She could feel her stomach beginning to growl.

“Far be it from me to be an unthoughtful manager Laura, I’m perfectly happy for you to bring your lunch in with you. Shall we say,” he said glancing at the clock on the wall, “two o clock?”

 

‘Great,’ she thought, ‘A lunch break with the most annoying man on the planet. Can this day possibly get any worse?’

 

“Oh and Laura?”

“Yes Mr Brittas,” she turned back round to him.

“Perhaps we could take a little more care with our ironing next time? Never forget Laura, we represent the establishment!” he said, moving his hands forward in his customary gesture.

“Yes Mr Brittas,” she said, barely controlling her anger.

No ‘Happy Birthday’ from him either, but she couldn’t exactly say she was surprised.

Her yoga class was thankfully quite uneventful, and she was just on her way up to Brittas’ office when she came across Gavin and Tim.

‘At least they’ll remember what day it is,’ she thought.  
Gavin especially was very good at remembering birthdays.

But to her dismay, neither of them said anything remotely birthday related.

Instead Gavin said,  
“Someones kicked over a bin in the ladies toilets, Brittas wants you to clear it up.”

“Well, can’t either of you do it?”

“He was quite insistent that you do it,” replied Tim.

 

Laura was close to losing it, to the point that she didn’t really know whether to cry or scream. She was starving hungry and desperately in need of caffeine. Stomping off to the toilets she could feel a headache brewing at the base of her skull.

As she began clearing up the filthy mess, her thoughts turned to her birthday and how it always turned out to be a disaster every year. Her family all lived down in Cornwall. Her friends? Well she only had two or three good ones, and they had decided to disappear off on holiday. She had at least hoped to get a few cards from her colleagues, but that obviously wasn’t going to be the case this year.

After cleaning up the toilets, she grabbed a sandwich and a coffee from the canteen and headed up to the manager’s office.  
She was seriously hoping that the form wouldn’t take that long to fill in.

“Ah Laura,” said her manager as she entered the office, “You’re a little later then we agreed,” he said glancing at his watch.

“Well yes Mr Brittas, Gavin said you wanted me to sort out the situation in the ladies toilets.” She noticed that he’d somehow managed to tame his hairstyle.

“Time keeping is very important in the work place Laura. It’s all about prioritising!  
If I ask you to be somewhere at a certain time, I really need you to make the best effort to be there.”

His voice was sounding more nasal than ever. She felt as if she were one step away from emptying the contents of the toilet bin all over his desk.

 

“Yes, Mr Brittas,” she replied through gritted teeth.

 

“Excellent, now do come and sit yourself down. I have the form right here.”  
He produced some sheets of paper from a box file and placed them in front of her.

 

“Mr Brittas, there are ten pages here!”  
“Yes, if you could please fill it in as accurately as possible.”

“But this is going to take me all afternoon!” she moaned.

“Time keeping Laura!” he said, tapping his watch.  
“You’d better get started straight away!”  
Just then Colin burst through the door.

“Colin, how many times!?”

“Oh, sorry Mr Brittas!”  
He went back to the door and knocked on it.

“Thankyou Colin, it’s nice of you to join us!”

“Oh I am terribly sorry about that Mr Brittas, my digestive system is a bit sensitive at the moment, I had a prawn curry last night you see.”

“I don’t need details thank you Colin, but you are making things difficult for me. This is the fourth time this week and I can’t really be seen to be paying you to sit on the toilet all day now can I?”

“No Mr Brittas, I suppose not.”

“What is it you wanted?”

“Ah yes, you’re needed in the gym room.”

“Why, what’s happened?”

“An old lady’s fallen off one of the exercise bikes.”

“Well can’t you handle it?”

“Well Mr Brittas, far be it from me to be insulting to a lady, but she’s a little on the overweight side and I’m struggling to get her off the floor by myself.”

“Fine, I’m coming,” he said, getting up and following Colin out.

“What was an old lady doing in the gym in the first place?”

Laura listened as his voice gradually faded away and then sighed in frustration. She grabbed a pen and began to make a start on the paper mountain in front of her, eating her sandwich while she worked.

The questions were ridiculous, and half of them seemed to be the same questions worded differently, and so she found herself repeating her answers. It was a classic ‘Mr Brittas’ form.

It had begun to get a bit stuffy in the office so she got up and opened the door.

‘Air conditioning must be on the blink again’ she thought.

Once she got down to her last three pages she was feeling much better about things. The sandwich had satisfied the hunger pangs in her stomach, and she reckoned her black coffee would just be cool enough to drink now.

She raised the cup to her lips, and was about to take a sip when a voice suddenly appeared by her ear.

“Very good Laura!”  
Her infuriating manager had, unbeknownst to her, re entered the office and was stood bending over her. He appeared to be analysing her work.

This of course caused her to jump out of her skin and spill her coffee.

All over the forms.

Laura felt like crying.

“Please do not tell me, that you’re going to make me do all this again?” She was struggling to conceal the rising frustration and upset in her voice.

But her manager said nothing.  
In fact, he hadn’t moved from the position he was in. He was still bending over her, and had now seen fit to place his hands either side of hers on the desk. She could feel his breath on her neck and smell faint traces of chlorine on his shirt from the swimming pool incident.

‘Why isn’t he saying anything?’

She was concerned to find that his closeness wasn’t entirely unpleasant, which made her want to get up and leave. The last thing she needed today was an onset of ‘feelings’ about her ‘pain in the backside’ manager. Leaving was not an option however, as he was effectively pinning her in the chair.

Then things got really weird.

She noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that he was now studying her face intensely. Her breathing began to quicken.

“Um, Mr Brittas?” she said.

“Ah yes Laura, the form!” he said, coming back to himself and moving to stand behind his desk.

‘What on earth was that about?’ she wondered.

“I really do need the form today, but seeing as how it is your clocking off time, I’m prepared to let you redo it in the morning.”

Laura groaned inwardly. She certainly didn’t relish the prospect of having to go through this whole charade again, but if it meant she could get home sooner tonight, then it was an option that she would just have to live with.

“Yes Mr Brittas.” she replied. “Can I go now?”

“Of course you can Laura,” he said, tilting his head back and displaying his nostrils. Another irritating habit of his.

She needed to get out of here. There was a bottle of red wine at home with her name on it, and she was planning on getting well and truly inebriated. She needed to forget about this god awful day.

 

Her boss had managed to be extra irritating today. She supposed it was because she had been late.

‘Is he punishing me?’

But then what about the strange situation in his office? He certainly hadn’t seem cross with her then. He had seemed almost, dare she think it, ‘intrigued’ by her. And then there was the fact that he had been kind enough to let her off having to stay late to redo that bloody form.

‘He could almost be quite attractive,’ she thought, ‘If he didn’t have the social skills of a wet dishcloth.’

She had collected her things from the staff room, and was just heading out when Linda appeared.

“Mr Brittas needs to see you in the Gymnasium!”

“What!” cried Laura, “He said I could go home!”

“It sounded pretty urgent,” replied Linda.

“Oh for gods sake!” said Laura, following on behind her.

She opened the door to the Hall, fully prepared for another lecture.  
What she saw, however, astounded her.

The whole room was decorated from top to bottom with balloons and streamers, and there was a big banner up on the wall with her name on it. All her colleagues were here, even Helen had turned up.

She couldn’t help the smile that broke across her face.

Upon seeing her enter, Brittas conducted everyone in a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday,’ while Colin presented her with a cake.

And what a beautiful cake it was. It was chocolate, with chocolate buttons decorating the sides.  
She was touched to discover that on top of the cake, her name had been spelt out with Smarties

She took a deep breath and managed to blow out the candles in one go, enjoying the attention from everyone, as they cheered and clapped.  
She approached the other staff members.

 

“Thank you so much for all this!” she said to them.

“Oh don’t thank us,” said Carole, “It was all Mr Brittas’ idea.”

“Yes! He’s been planning this for two weeks!” said Linda excitedly.

“Brittas has been planning this?” Laura couldn’t quite believe her ears.

“Oh yes,” said Carole, “And we were under strict instructions not to breathe a word of it to you! Why do you think he was trying to keep you occupied all afternoon?”

It all made sense to Laura now, the ‘late form’ and ‘cleaning up the toilet’ had all been a ruse to keep her away from the party preparations.

“Looks like someone’s been doing some unpaid overtime,” said Tim, nudging Gavin.

“What, me? Why would you say that?”

“Because Laura, Brittas didn’t even remember my birthday last month!” said Tim.

“And I only got a card for mine!” said Linda.

“But why would he do all this for me?” she asked, more confused than ever.

“Who knows?” said Gavin, “But I’d enjoy it while you can...you know what he’s like!”

She did, well she thought she did.  
Gazing across the room at him, she felt an intense wave of affection pass over her as she watched her arrogant, condescending manager lecturing some of the staff. He was helping to lay out the food, and his Essex drawl cut clearly across the noise in the room, as it always did.

“No, don’t put the sandwiches there, that’s the table for the vol-au-vents! What is the point of me drawing out charts if no one is going to read them!?  
Colin, I’m not going to tell you again! Keep your fingers away from that cake!”

“Who made all this food?” she asked.

“We all chipped in! Carole and I made the sandwiches!” said Linda.

 

“Gavin and I made the puddings!” said Tim.

“I made the punch!” said Angie.

“Thank you so much guys, it all looks wonderful,” replied Laura.

“And I made the vol-au-vents!” said Colin, joining the group. Laura could hear the immense pride in his voice.

“Wow thank you Colin,” she said, making a mental note to steer well clear of those.  
“Oh my god is that Prosecco?” She pointed at the table containing the drinks.  
“Who paid for all this booze?”

“I expect Brittas swiped it from petty cash!” said Tim laughing. “It wouldn’t exactly be the first time would it?”

“Technically he didn’t steal it Tim,” said Colin, “It was just for the purposes of setting the trap remember? To find out who stole Carole’s fiver?”

“Well I still wouldn’t put it past him!” joked Tim.

‘So did he pay for all this out of his own money?’ Laura mused.

“And where did this fantastic cake come from?” she asked, moving over to the dessert table.

“Oh, Mr Brittas made that,” said Colin, sporting a huge grin. “He made it before work this morning apparently.”

“Mr Brittas made my cake?” she asked in complete astonishment.  
They all nodded.

“But I didn’t even know he could bake!”

“Neither did we,” said Carole. “It would seem that our manager has hidden talents.”

‘He does indeed,’ thought Laura, glancing over at him.  


‘How did he know I liked Smarties?’ 

Just as she began to eat a slice, he came over to her.

The cake tasted magnificent, it wasn’t too dry, and there was just the right amount of chocolate in it.

“How are you enjoying your birthday celebrations Laura?”  


“It’s wonderful Mr Brittas, thank you” she said through a mouthful of chocolate heaven.

“It was very fortunate that you turned up late for work today! And you thought that late form was genuine didn’t you?” he said in his patronising tone.

It was the tone which normally drove her round the bend, but after this show of kindness, she was finding it more and more difficult to fault him. In fact, she had seen a very different side of the man this evening, one that was almost forcing her to re-evaluate her impression of him.

She nodded, currently in the process of swallowing the cake in her mouth.

“I got you there you there didn’t I Laura! The late forms are only three pages long!” he said.

She began to laugh, but then noticed the deadpan expression on his face.

‘Oh, he’s not kidding.’

Never mind all that though, she had a very important question to ask.

Taking a deep breath, she asked  
“Mr Brittas, why did you do all this for me?”

He gazed at her for a moment or two. It seemed to her that he was having great trouble coming up with a response.

Could she see something in his face? Something different?  
If she could it lasted no more than a minute, as he quickly put his ‘managers mask’ back on and said,

“I have to keep my deputy managers happy don’t I Laura? Happy managers lead to a successful business! I think I’ll have some of that cake myself!” he said, helping himself to a slice.

‘Yes,’ she thought, ‘But I doubt that you would go to the same lengths for Colin’s birthday.’

There was so much more she wanted to say to him, but at that moment Helen appeared by his side and started whining about how late it was getting, and could he take her home as she had a doctors appointment in the morning.

‘It’s only half past seven,’ wondered Laura.  
‘What’s she up to?’

“I’ll be back in a moment Laura,” he said, fishing his keys out of his pocket and putting the untouched slice of cake down on the table.

‘He’d do anything for her...’  
She was suprised to find that this thought made her feel a little sad.

But her party celebrations were more than enough to distract her from this thought. She glanced round at all her colleagues, feeling closer to them than ever this evening.

Linda was on what looked to be her third slice of birthday cake, while Angie seemed to be polishing off the majority of the Prosecco.

Colin was doing some form of interpretive dance to Ghostbusters, and Carole was sitting in the corner of the room with Ben in his carrier, her plate piled high with sausage rolls and a contented smile on her face.

The only two people who didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves were Gavin and Tim, who seemed to be having a bit of a disagreement over by the punch table.

Not colleagues.

Friends, and good ones at that.

‘Perhaps even very good friends’, she thought as she saw Brittas come through the door to rejoin the party.

She was having so much fun that she completely lost track of the time. It wasn’t until she heard Brittas shouting over the top of everyone.

“Right everyone, I do hate to break up the party mood but it is now midnight and we do have quite a bit of clearing up to do!”

Everyone began to clear up, and Laura made her towards the sandwich table to help, when her boss came up to her from behind and put his hands on her shoulders, scaring the life out of her for the second time that day. His hands were pleasantly warm, she noted.

 

‘Why is he touching me again? And more to the point, why am I enjoying it?’

“Not you Laura!”

“Its fine I really don’t mind helping out.”

“Ah but I do Laura, this is your party and so you’re not lifting a finger!”

 

With that, he abruptly removed his hands and moved to begin taking down the decorations.

She very nearly whimpered at the loss of his warm touch, and found her eyes following him across the room.

Linda appeared by her side.

“Are you calling for a taxi, Laura?”

“Yes, why? Did you need a lift home?”

“No, Colin, Tim and I are getting a lift with Brittas! He’s designated driver! There’s an extra space if you wanted to come too?”

“Well...” said Laura, she felt unsure about this, although she wasn’t exactly sure why.

“Oh come on! It’ll be loads of fun!” squealed Linda, who had clearly had an awful lot to drink.

“Alright,” she said.

‘It’ll be ok,’ she convinced herself, ‘Colin, Tim and Linda are getting a lift too. It’s not like I’m going to be in the car with him on my own.’

“Getting a lift too are you Laura?” her manager asked, when he noticed she was following the small group of them to the car.

“If that’s alright?”

“Of course it is!” How on earth the man managed to sound so jovial at half past midnight, after having had an early morning of cake baking, was completely beyond her.

The three others all bundled into the Austin Maestro, Colin and Tim in the back, with Linda squeezed in the middle of them.

‘Looks like I’m in the front seat then,’ thought Laura.

“Tim, why aren’t you getting a lift home with Gavin?” she asked.

 

“Don’t even go there!” he said with some asperity.  
“He wanted to go and see his mother! I told him that it was rude to leave your party half way through, but he was determined to go. So I told him to sod off!”

 

“You know Tim, I really wouldn’t have minded you leaving a bit earlier.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way Laura, but I was quite glad of the excuse.” He then leant forward and whispered into her ear as quietly as he could  
“His mothers a complete gargoyle.”

“A gargoyle eh?” said Brittas, fastening his seatbelt.

Evidently Tim’s whispering hadn’t been quiet enough.  
He spluttered  
“Please don’t tell Gavin I said that, Mr Brittas!”

“Not to worry Timothy, ‘Mums’ the word,” he said, tapping his finger to his nose and sniggering.

Tim gave Laura a thoroughly disheartened look, and she gave him a reassuring smile, in an attempt to try and make him feel better.

They both knew of their managers complete inability to keep secrets.

His car was just how she had expected it to be. Spotless, to the point that it almost seemed like it had never been used, and there was a soft floral smell. She smiled as she noticed the ‘Magic Tree’ air freshener.

Five minutes into the journey, Tim requested some music.

Brittas turned the radio on, which incurred a duet of disapproval from Tim and Linda in the back.

“Oh my god!” cried Linda, “You listen to Classic FM?”

“There is nothing wrong with Classic FM, Linda!”

“I like Classic FM,” said Colin.

“We want some party music!” shouted Tim. Laura noticed that he’d smuggled a miniature bottle of wine into the car, and was rapidly getting drunker by the second.

‘I hope for his sake that our driver doesn’t notice a bottle of wine being drunk in his ‘precious car,’ she thought to herself.

“Hey, there’s an ABBA tape back here!” Linda passed the tape to Laura.

Not long after that everyone in the car was singing along loudly to Mamma Mia, with the exception of Brittas who was just shaking his head and rolling his eyes. But she could see a slight smile on his face.

Linda lived a little way out of Whitbury, and their manager insisted that the quickest route was down a country lane.  
They were a about a mile and half into it, when a bright red Ford suddenly overtook them, so close it almost clipped the side mirror of the Austen, causing their driver to have to swerve out of the way.

“Woah, steady on!” cried Tim, almost spilling his wine.

 

Their manager shocked them all by suddenly accelerating so that he overtook the Ford by a couple of miles or so (somehow managing to avoid the other cars side mirrors and paintwork) and then swung his car round so that it was completely blocking the lane, forcing the other driver to slow down and stop.

“Nice moves Mr Brittas!” came Colin’s voice from the back of the car.

 

His manager yanked up the handbrake, rolled down his window and motioned to the other driver to do the same.

‘Here we go,’ thought Laura. But the Prosecco she had drunk had made her head feel warm and fuzzy, and she didn’t feel a trace of embarrassment.

The other driver rolled his window down.

“What are you doing you tosser? Move your fucking car!”

Gordon Brittas instantly switched into what everyone knew as ‘Super Authoritarian mode’.

“First of all my dear sir, there is absolutely no need for language like that! And second of all, no I will not move my car!”

“What’s your problem?!”

“My problem is that you clearly do not have any concept about when it is safe to overtake! It’s lucky that I’m an experienced driver or that could have been a very dangerous situation back there!”

Laura wanted to tell him that he himself had just executed a much more dangerous manoeuvre. But sometimes, she admitted to herself, it was fun to watch him go off on one.

She could hear chuckling behind her, and looked back to see Linda and Tim with their hands over their mouths. The combination of the alcohol in their systems, and Mr Brittas being ‘Mr Brittas’, was making it hard for them to control their laughter.

“Look mate,” said the other man, growing more frustrated by the minute.  
“I’ve got somewhere I need to be!”

“Well I’m not confident on your ability to drive safely sir, which leads me to believe that you may indeed not have a valid drivers license. I’ll need you to show it to me.”

Now Laura was struggling not to laugh.

“You what!?” came the outraged reply

“I’d like you to show me you’re driving license. I have already memorised your number plate, and I will have no trouble reporting you to the police.”

“Are you drunk mate?!”

“I am most sincerely not drunk, I’ll thank you very much! I’m not so sure that I can say the same about you though sir!’

This furious exchange went on for at least another five minutes or so, until the mans wife tapped him on the shoulder.

“Show him your bloody license Norman or we’ll never get rid of him!”

The man angrily pulled his license out of his wallet and showed it to Brittas.

“Alright, yes that does appear to be you.”

“Of course it’s me!”

“Very well,” said Brittas returning the license to the enraged man in the other car.

“Will you please move your vehicle now!?” shouted the man.

Brittas restarted the engine and pulled his car out of the way of the other vehicle, but as the other man made to drive away he called out the window.

“Remember, just a little more thought when you’re overtaking next time!”

This rewarded him a middle finger from the other driver.

“Well done Mr Brittas,” said Colin, ever faithful to his manager. “You certainly told him!”

“I just cannot believe how rude some people are! I was only trying to be helpful!” he cried in an exasperated tone.

This was the final straw for Tim and Linda and they both burst into uproarious laughter.

“Road trip with Brittas!!” yelled Tim, pumping his fist.

“I don’t see what’s funny!” said their driver, glaring at them in the rear view mirror.

Judging by the cacophony of howling laughter coming from the back seat, that comment had apparently made the situation even funnier.

“I think,” attempted Laura, trying to keep a straight face herself, “They’ve just had a bit too much to drink Mr Brittas.”

“Well I did tell them they needed to slow down, especially you Linda!”

Gradually the laughter died down, and it was all silent in the car for ten minutes or so, with the exception of a soft snoring sound. It was coming from Tim, who had fallen asleep against the back window.

“I feel sick” suddenly came from the back of the car.  
It was Linda.

“Don’t you even think about throwing up in my car Linda!”

“I don’t think its something she can help, Mr Brittas,” said Laura.

“Oh...I ate too much of that birthday cake...”

“Guess you won’t be wanting any more then Linda?” asked Laura, waving the Tupperware container that contained the leftovers at her. She couldn’t help herself.

“Ohh,” her colleague groaned.

“Laura, that’s not helping!” said her manager.

Laura tried in vain not to giggle, but the thought of her manager having to clean up regurgitated chocolate cake off the upholstery of his precious car, was conjuring up hilarious images in her mind.

“I think you might have to pull over Mr Brittas, shes looking a bit green around the gills,” warned Colin.

“Well she’ll have to wait another mile or so until I get to a lay-by.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be an option,” said Laura, noticing how white Linda had gone.

“Oh alright,” he said pulling over, “But if I get a police caution, I’m holding you solely responsible Linda!”

He had pulled over just in time it seemed, for Linda scrambled over Colin, and just about managed to get the door open before throwing up rather dramatically.

“I hope that’s not going down the side of my car!”

Eventually she climbed back in and settled back into her spot between the two men.

“Are you alright Linda?” Laura asked.

“Oh that feels so much better!” she replied.

The rest of the journey went surprisingly smoothly. Approaching Linda’s house, Brittas instructed Colin to help make sure she got in ok.

“That just means take her to the door Colin! It doesn’t mean follow her into the bedroom and make sure that she gets undressed successfully!”

Colin helped a very sleepy Linda out of the car and supported her to her front door.

Laura had to ponder about the man sitting next to her. He had been quite rude to Linda, she felt, over the whole car sickness thing, but he now seemed intent on making sure she got inside ok.

‘He really is an enigma.’

After dropping the other two off, they finally got to Lauras house.

They pulled up outside and there was a moment of silence between the two of them, almost as if neither one really knew what to say to the other. The atmosphere had changed considerably now that they were in the car alone together. She regarded him. His blazer had been slung in the boot, and she couldn’t help admiring his toned upper arms and strong shoulders, which were just visible through his shirt.

‘Dam, he’s sexy...Which must mean I’ve had way too much to drink.’

He spoke eventually.

“Would you like me to see you in?”

‘God no!” her brain panicked.  
‘If he does that then I’m pretty sure that I’m going to end up asking him in.’

She knew he wouldn’t come in anyway, he was nothing if not faithful to his wife. But just the knowledge that she’d asked that question would be embarrassing enough.

“No thats ok,” she replied.  
“Thank you so much for tonight, for everything that you did to organise it.”

“You’re welcome Laura,” he said, a gentle smile adorning his face.

It was a smile she had never seen before, and it melted her heart just a little bit.

‘Laura Lancing, you need to get of this car right now!’ her brain yelled at her.

But she didn’t.

She didn’t know if it was the wine, the fact that he had been so nice to her, or the fact that she was now seeing a very different side to him, but what happened next just felt so ‘right’.

She leant forward and kissed him on the cheek, noticing the slight prickle from his five o clock shadow. In the back of her mind she expected she would probably get fired or something, and was disturbed at how little that fact bothered her right now.

But he didn’t seem offended or embarrassed at all, in fact, a slight blush was creeping across his handsome features and his eyes were wide.

‘Is that arousel?’ She thought it could very well have been.

“What was that for Laura?” he asked touching his cheek.

‘For showing me the perfect, beautiful, wonderful man inside you,’ she thought.

“For the lift,” she said.

“You’re welcome Laura,” he said again, this time staring at her with such an intensity that she knew she had to get out the car or she would do something even more embarrassing. A peck on the cheek was just enough.

“I’ll see you at work on Monday,” she said getting out.

“Oh Laura?”

She turned to face him.

“Don’t forget the rest of your cake,” he said, smiling as he handed her the Tupperware box.

She struggled to suppress a shiver as his hand brushed over hers.

“Goodnight Laura.”

“Goodnight Mr Brittas.”

As she walked up the path to her house, Laura allowed herself a little smile. Actually, it was more of a wide grin.

‘Best birthday ever!’


End file.
